The Case of the Mysterious Handprints (2 page)

“Everything, Mom,” replied Encyclopedia.

WHY?

(
Turn to
this page
for the solution to The Case of the Blond Wig.
)

E
ncyclopedia did more than help his father solve mysteries. He helped the children of the neighborhood as well.

When school let out for the summer, he opened his own detective agency in the family garage. Every morning he hung out his sign:

The first customer Monday morning was Gary Hale. Encyclopedia was surprised to see him. Gary usually spent mornings at his hobby, entering contests.

So far this year, Gary had finished ninth in a national spark plug contest. He had won a free car wash in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. In several other contests he had won smaller prizes.

He laid twenty-five cents on the gas can beside Encyclopedia.

“I want to hire you,” he said. “Bugs Meany just stole the words right out of my pocket.”

“Trust Bugs to do something like that,” Encyclopedia murmured.

Bugs Meany was the leader of a gang of tough older boys. They called themselves the Tigers. They should have called themselves the Pocket Watches. They always watched for the police while their hands went around in some little kid’s pocket.

“Get back my words before Bugs wins a motorcycle,” Gary said.

He explained. He had entered a contest, “Fighting Words of Famous Americans.” Ten minutes ago he was hurrying to mail off his entry. Bugs Meany stopped him.

“Bugs asked me where I was going,” Gary said. “I made the mistake of telling him. Then I made a worse mistake. I told him first prize in the contest was a red, white, and blue motorcycle.”

Gary had on a tan shirt with two buttonless pockets. Tapping his right pocket, he said, “I was carrying my contest entry here in an envelope. It stuck out. Bugs snatched it and walked off, chanting, ‘Don’t give up the ship!’ ”

“You’re afraid Bugs will send in the sayings as his own?” Encyclopedia asked. “You’re right. We’d better go and see him while there is still time.”

“You go,” Gary urged. “I didn’t pay twenty-five cents to get a black eye.”

“Steady up,” Encyclopedia said. “I’ve handled Bugs before.”

Gary hesitated, drew a deep breath, and shrugged. “Well … okay,” he agreed. “I’ve always wanted to live dangerously.”

The Tigers’ clubhouse was an unused tool-shed behind Mr. Sweeney’s Auto Body Shop. Bugs was inside, alone.

“Make like Christopher Columbus,” he growled at Encyclopedia, “and shove off.”

“Gary claims you stole some famous sayings from him,” the detective stated calmly.

“What?” Bugs cried. “Why, this kid is a world-class fruitcake.
He
stole the sayings from
me
.”

“How did he steal them, Bugs?” Encyclopedia inquired.

“Right from my shirt pocket,” Bugs asserted.

“Your shirt doesn’t have a pocket,” Gary pointed out.

Bugs grunted as if he’d been clubbed over the head with a canoe. It took him a moment to find an answer.

“Cleanliness is dear to us Tigers,” he said with a smirk. “In the summer we change our shirts twice a day. I was wearing a polo shirt with a pocket.”

He traced a pocket over his right breast with his forefinger.

“My sayings were in an envelope, ready to be mailed,” he continued. “The envelope stuck out of my pocket. This kid grabbed the envelope and ran.”

“You thieving, lying crook!” Gary howled. “You should be elected president so you can grant yourself a pardon.”

“Baby brain,” growled Bugs, “don’t make
me mad. Run along while I’m in my present good mood.”

“I’m not budging till you return my sayings,” Gary retorted. “In the words of William Travis, commander at the Alamo, ‘I shall never surrender or retreat.’ ”

“Is that so?” Bugs jeered. “In the words of John Paul Jones, the naval hero, ‘I have not yet begun to fight!’ ”

“Oh, yeah?” Gary shouted, “ ‘I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer’—General U. S. Grant at the Battle of the Wilderness.”

“Don’t shout,” Bugs cautioned. “ ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick’—President Theodore Roosevelt.”

“ ‘Nuts!’ ” Gary roared. “General Anthony McAuliffe at the Battle of the Bulge!”

Bugs’s face showed the strain of his struggle to keep up with Gary. The best he could squeeze out was “Remember the Pain!”

“ ‘Remember the
Maine,’
you big dummy,” Gary corrected. “ ‘Remember the
Maine
’ was the American battle cry against Spain.”

“Uh-uh, I mean
pain
,” Bugs said threateningly.

Gary stood firm. “You wouldn’t know a single famous saying if you hadn’t stolen them from me,” he said, and spat his disgust.

Bugs raised a fist. “It isn’t polite to spit, even if it’s your own blood.”

“Cool your jets, Bugs,” Encyclopedia said. “I know you’re the thief.”

WHAT WAS BUGS’S MISTAKE?

(
Turn to
this page
for the solution to The Case of the Battle Cries.
)

T
he heart of Bugs Meany beat with a great desire. It was to get back at Encyclopedia.

Bugs hated being outsmarted all the time. He longed to lower Encyclopedia’s IQ by yanking on his tonsils.

But Bugs never dared to use his size and strength. Whenever he felt the urge, he remembered Sally Kimball.

Sally was the prettiest girl in the fifth grade and the best athlete. She could do what no kid had thought was possible: punch out the Tigers’ leader!

When they had fought last, Bugs went down
so often the ground ached. Between the bops and the plops, he soon was too dizzy to know where he was. He lay on his back and moaned, “Let’s form a committee.”

After Sally joined the Brown Detective Agency as a junior partner, Bugs quit trying to bully Encyclopedia. Instead, he included Sally in his plans for revenge.

“Bugs will try to get even for the lickings you gave him,” Encyclopedia warned her.

“Don’t worry,” Sally replied. “Bugs has a big handicap, his brain. It’s too odd to get even.”

The detectives were approaching Bugs’s house on their way to Joe Tully’s birthday party a block beyond. They began talking about the party and the lively evening in store for them.

The street was deserted. Above, a few stars glimmered in the late twilight sky. The moon was full.

The birthday party was fun piled upon fun. After two hours, Sally received an unexpected telephone call.

“That was Stan Hemming,” she told Encyclopedia. “He asked us to come right over to his house and use the back door. He doesn’t
want to bother his folks. Bugs Meany stole his football.”

Encyclopedia sighed. “I hate to leave the party. Still, if Stan needs help, we’d better go.”

Stan lived next door to Bugs. A row of thick, high bushes separated the two properties. No lights shone from Stan’s house as the detectives entered the backyard.

Encyclopedia caught Sally’s arm. “Are you sure it was really Stan who telephoned —”

“There they are, the dirty little thieves!”

Bugs Meany strode from behind a storage shed. Officer Clancy was with him.

“They’ve come back for the loot!” Bugs cried.

“Bugs claims you broke into the Hemmings’ storage shed a couple of hours ago,” Officer Clancy declared.

Sally glared at Bugs. “You liar! I’d wring your neck if you’d wash it.”

“Save the fast lip for the judge,” Bugs jeered. “Your secret life of crime is over!”

“Simmer down, both of you,” Officer Clancy ordered. “Tell them what you told me, Bugs. The truth, now.”

“I heard them talking about the Hemmings being away on vacation as they passed my
house two hours ago,” Bugs began. “They decided this was their big chance. They slipped into the backyard, broke into the storage shed, and removed some power tools.”

Bugs paused for effect. He drew himself up as straight as George Washington taking the oath of office.

“Miss Muscles wanted to scram with the loot,” he went on. “Mr. Know-It-All said they’d better show up at Joe Tully’s party. They could leave early and come back for the tools. And here they are!”

Office Clancy pointed to a stack of firewood beside the storage shed. “Bugs and I found an edger, a trimmer, and a leaf-blower hidden there,” he said.

“How could you see the storage shed, Bugs?” Encyclopedia demanded. “The bushes are in the way.”

Bugs grinned as if he’d been waiting for the question. “I saw
over
the bushes. Have a look yourself.”

He led Officer Clancy and the detectives into his house, up the stairs, and onto the second-floor porch.

From the porch Encyclopedia had a clear, moonlit view of Stan Hemming’s backyard.

“Before my folks went out tonight,” Bugs said, “Dad lent me his telescope. I was studying the moon when these missing links walked by, plotting.”

In the middle of the porch stood a small telescope. It was pointed at the sky.

“My hobby is studying the heavens,” Bugs announced in a voice dripping with sincerity. “I have such a hunger for knowledge.”

“Sit down before you faint of starvation,” Sally snapped. “You placed the telescope here just to make your story ring true. You couldn’t tell a full moon from a corn muffin.”

While Bugs groped for a retort, Sally peered through the telescope—and stepped back in surprise.

“He
was
looking at the moon. I saw it clearly,” she told Encyclopedia.

Bugs crowed, “While they were stealing the tools, I raced downstairs and called the police. Then I hid behind the bushes and waited for them to return from the party. If you hadn’t arrived, Officer Clancy, I’d have made a citizen’s arrest. Us Tigers know our duty.”

“You telephoned me to come here,” Sally said. “You pretended to be Stan Hemming. You’re trying to frame us!”